For this week's Creator's Tip episode Tim Schmoyer and Kevin Nalty talk about how to reach out to key influencers and how to start seeding your videos so they're seen and shared by others, especially if you don't have many viewers to begin with.

One of the things to remember when creating video is that with the competition in the market today, just creating a video and posting it on YouTube does not guarantee your video will be viewed. With so many creators using paid search or buying views those methods are no longer sufficient today to achieve a high number of views.

Video Seeding Best Practices: What NOT to Do

The best thing you can do for your video is seed it. First understand that seeding is different then spamming where you would likely mass mail a large number of bloggers to try to get them to share your video. Seeding requires building good relationships with bloggers and sites in your niche and providing good content.

Don't send every video you create to your blogger list. Only send them videos that are relative to their blog topics or have real value.

Don't just send your video or content. If you are able to provide content from other sources you will be viewed as more of a curator and valuable resource rather than a self promoter.

Don't mass mail. Be sure to send personalized messages to the bloggers or partners you wish to share with in order to build a better creative relationship.

Tim: Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer and welcome to another week of Creator’s Tip here at ReelSEO where we just help you guys make online video content and how to make that stuff the best and make it stand out and get views. And who knows better how to get views on YouTube then Mr. Kevin Nalty himself, www.YouTube.com/Nalts. He’s the author of Beyond Viral. Viral video marketing genius, self proclaimed and now Tim Schmoyer proclaimed.

Today we want to talk about seeding your videos. Let’s say you make a video for a specific niche, how do you get people in that niche to start discovering that video and get your own content found on YouTube amongst the 60 hours that are being uploaded every minute and everything. So what kind of strategies have you found work well for seeding your content?

Kevin: So this can be a tricky area for creators because they tend to think of the video as complete once they’ve posted it. That it’s going to survive on its own merits, which is not the case anymore. There is too much competition for that. So it does help to seed as we say. A very different word than a similar S word with four letters which is spam. So seeding is different because –

Tim: Thought you were going in a totally different direction with that.

Kevin: So did I. I quickly shifted. So what is seeding? It’s probably the most misunderstood aspect of online video. Most people think it’s going to survive on it’s own merits, that it’s going to be found on paid search or you’re going to buy views and the reality is that there are other people speaking to your same audience and you want to let them know about your content. So good example is I created, when Mac Air came out, I created a Mac Air parody and I literally shot this thing in 10 or 15 minutes, full of Ambien and just before I fell asleep I sent it out to a couple Mac bloggers, and as a result it got hundreds of thousands of views in the first day because they picked it up.

Tim: I remember you did a funny iPad one too with the mask and –

Kevin: Oh yeah that got no views. I didn’t seed that one and I got frustrated that nobody looked at it because I didn’t bother seeding it. So it can be uncomfortable to sort of self promote your own videos. It kind of feels like you’re gaming the system. But if your video is content that you think someone else will enjoy and want to share with their readers and if you write them individually based on that versus sending a bunch of –

Tim: Mass email.

Kevin: -- bloggers, yeah.

Tim: So how do you start building relationships with people like that? Cause that’s key right to seeding?

Kevin: Yeah, if you’re creating basic comedy videos you’re not going to be able to get The Onion to pick them up. But if you’re creating niche content around a specific subject, you know, technology reviews, it’s worth developing some relationships. Maybe not with Gawker but some of the lower tech blogs.

Tim: Work your way up right?

Kevin: And earn the right to be able to – so you’re sending them content not every time you do a video, but on select content and maybe you’re sending them other people’s content too so you’re seen not as a self promoter but as a helpful kind of curator.

I think it's important to match the tone of your pitch to that of the blogger, it can be uncomfortable to get a semi-formal letter about a goofy video for example.

holiday

This is going to sound ignorant, for most of you. How do you find the niche blogger?

Thelfrey

@holiday Google, Facebook, Twitter... Not trying to down play your question. Just searching around the web you'll find niche blogs and they all need quality content. One of my favorite ways to find niche blogs is using Google's blog search engine.

Basically search a niche key word phrase. Then one the left hand side of the Google results page are "filters" such as "maps, images, etc" scroll down and one of them will be for "blogs."

And always remember smaller blogs may not show up on the 1st page of results, so make sure to check the search results on the 2nd and 3rd pages.

Best, thelfrey

AzzamSheikh

I have relatively good success with guest blogging and videos should work as good to get those much needed views. The post makes reference to targeting and building relationships with bloggers first which is important.

http://www.blueairproducts.com/ holiday

@Thelfrey Now that is one extremely targeted response! Your directions led me to something I needed for a very long time. Thanks!

AzzamSheikh

Absolutely awesome video. Great tips, loads to be taken from it. Thanks for this, it has given me great food for thought.

timschmoyer

@AzzamSheikh You're welcome! Glad it was helpful for ya!

Marc Ostrick

Good info for those creators, Nalty!!!

RosaSow

I think it's important to match the tone of your pitch to that of the blogger, it can be uncomfortable to get a semi-formal letter about a goofy video for example.

http://www.blueairproducts.com/ holiday

This is going to sound ignorant, for most of you. How do you find the niche blogger?

Thelfrey

@holiday Google, Facebook, Twitter... Not trying to down play your question. Just searching around the web you'll find niche blogs and they all need quality content. One of my favorite ways to find niche blogs is using Google's blog search engine.

Basically search a niche key word phrase. Then one the left hand side of the Google results page are "filters" such as "maps, images, etc" scroll down and one of them will be for "blogs."

And always remember smaller blogs may not show up on the 1st page of results, so make sure to check the search results on the 2nd and 3rd pages.

Best, thelfrey

AzzamSheikh

I have relatively good success with guest blogging and videos should work as good to get those much needed views. The post makes reference to targeting and building relationships with bloggers first which is important.

http://www.blueairproducts.com/ holiday

@Thelfrey Now that is one extremely targeted response! Your directions led me to something I needed for a very long time. Thanks!

AzzamSheikh

Absolutely awesome video. Great tips, loads to be taken from it. Thanks for this, it has given me great food for thought.